On the serious side, HFCS is starting/continuing to get heightened attention as both a potential toxin and as a cause for obesity. Yes, toxin, because, according to the following, it metabolizes *exactly* like ethyl alcohol, except it metaboizes in the liver/gut instead of in the brain. Which means it produces no high. Few would argue that ethyl alcohol is not a toxin. When HFCS (or sucrose, for that matter) breaks down in the body it follows a chemical path remarkably parallel to that of ethyl alcohol. (If you believe the contents of the following video)
This is a longish 1:30:00 talk by a Doctor Lustig from the Univ. of CA regarding his findings on HFCS and sucrose. I found it worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&feature=player_embedded
This not being my area of expertise, I’m posting it without any particular position on the topic. I found it quite credible. I’d appreciate any FReeper comments on the content.
My computer is too old to download youtube. Thanks anyway. You can find more threads about frustose associated non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, nafld, at that abbreviation for a keyword. It appears dose dependent, BTW.
I limit what I can of HFCS, for both me and my daughter. I did buy a big jar of strawberry preserves, however, and naturally (or not), HFCS was the 2nd ingrdient. I don’t have it that often...but will be getting canning supplies and making my own preserves from here on in. Thanks government, yet again, for forcing another quasi-artifical ingredient into the food chain.
But the disaccharide, sucrose (cane sugar) is made of the two monosaccharides glucose and fructose, requiring an enzyme to break it into them. Why then would high fructose corn syrup be bad? What is it and how`s it constructed ( HFCS)? Could the fact that one is an aldose (glucose) and the other`s a ketose (fructose) be the key?